Mists of Sanctum
by BornUndead
Summary: The world of Sanctum has been struck with war, but with the recent retreat of Chaos why would a detachment of Imperial personnel be requested to aid a city? This chronicles the story of Arbitrator Drake Argrurius and Sister Loraine Nass.


_I do not own Warhammer 40,000, all original characters are by my own design._

**Mists of Sanctum**

**Prologue: Distress Call**

++Incoming Transmission++

+++Location: Imperial World+++

++++Planet: Sanctum Prime++++

++++Northern Sector++++

++++City: Hellsreach++++

A crackle sounded out into a sparsely lit vox chamber. Some where in the nest of coils, tubes, and cords a recording device powered up and accessed the transmission.

"To any Imperial Navy or military." A male voice with a thick Low Gothic accent spoke out hurriedly, with the edge of panic in his voice, into the empty room.

"This is Hellsreach calling for help. We have many wounded and need immediate medical aid and evacuation-!" Static broke the message and it rang for some time into the shadows of the room.

A click came over the transmission. "Negate last message." A rich male voice said in High Gothic. "Medical aid is all Hellsreach requires. Repeat..."

The recorder stopped with a click and waited for a tech adept or crewman to come remove it's knowledge. It waited for two weeks.

-=I=-

_Come to me..._

Arbitrator Drake Argurius awoke in his bunk with a gasp. Sweat covered and slicked his muscular form as he threw himself from his soaked sheets to the tiny sink that stuck out of the metallic wall. Cold water brought a gasp from deep within his lungs. The sounds of the water going down the rust laden drain brought back his dream.

Sanctum Prime was his home. It had birthed him just as much as his mother had, and he loved it as much as he had the latter. He had been an Arbitrator in the Imperial city of Elysium. He _had _been. That was before the forces of Chaos came down upon the peaceful planet that had not even seen a minor rebellion in over two thousand years. His job had been almost entirely uneventful, it had been rare. He had loved his planet, and he still did, Sanctum was his home and his family. But the war that had waged for the past year on Sanctum had ruined it. Rivers were choked with bodies and once beautiful cities devout to the Emperor of Mankind were now torn war zones where the Imperial Military and the forces of Chaos under the fervent and insane leadership of a Chaos Sorceress called Chiobos fought.

But this time instead of seeing his home that he was so proud of be destroyed by the same hulking Chaos Cultists he saw it burning. Flames as tall as the highest buildings danced into the sky and he heard light musical female laughter. That was when he saw the form in the burning memory of his home. He knew she was female. That was all, all detail danced upon her and she strode through the flames and with lips of coal smiled.

_Come to me..._

"Drake?"

Argurius looked over his shoulder, water dripping off of his face. A girl, no more than eleven, with dark brown hair and olive skin looked at him, her deep brown eyes filled with concern. Her ill fitting pajamas, simple fatigues cut and tied to fit her, drooping on her thin frame. She was pretty and would grow to be a great beauty.

"It's nothing Octavia. Go back to sleep, the Sisters will tan my hide till it bleeds if they find out you've been awake all night." He said as reassuringly as he could as the dream threatened to rob him of his words.

The girl nodded sleepily and went back to the small mound of blankets on the floor, she refused to sleep anywhere away from him.

Drake had rescued Octavia from Elysium. After a small detachment of Adepta Sororitas had held the starport and they had watched them burn cultist soldiers and the one Sister who had done the deed hand them her canteen to clean the filth of battle of their flesh be shot; neither had spoke much. In fact he had nearly died, all of his friends had to the best of his knowledge.

The girl and he had been practically catatonic once they had boarded the evacuation transport. He had smiled more then, or at least Octavia said so. Which made little sense, he had first met her when he fled the culling of Ellysium. He let her believe what she wished, she was more of a daughter to him now after a year. He would have done anything to protect her, he had even put her in classes with the permission of the Sisters aboard the ship they stayed upon, he could not remember the name for how many times they switched, while he helped be a planetary guide for the Sisters.

He went back to his bunk and lay down the dream still flitting through his head. Drake clenched his eyes shut and pulled the cover over his body and tried to not dream of his home that he was so proud of burning below him.

-=I=-

Four Inquisitors stood in the middle of a large chapel aboard the massive battle ship _His Justice_. Two were in deep red and silver robes their Inquisitorial medallions displayed upon their chests. Deep cowls hid faces except for the obvious protrusion of a cybernetic rebreather on the thicker built of the two. The other two were dressed in less formal wear.

The first was a woman with dark blonde hair that held more gray than blond. Her eyes were predatory and lines of stress etched her emotionless face. She was dressed in full power armor with Ecclesiarchal and Inquisitorial seals adorning it. She stared at the Inquisitor across from her with hawk-like sharpness.

The man across from her was outfitted similarly but with less finery. His hair was dark brown to extent of being nearly black that was short and all came forward like an ancient Roman Caesar while his jaw was covered by a short dark beard that accented his handsome face and gave the Inquisitor the look of a king. His armor held repair marks from battle damage and on his waist was a sword with an odd power coupling to bring an energy field about it's blade. Parallel to the sword was an ancient bolt pistol. Both weapons a sign of his station and accomplishment.

They watched the transmission for the tenth time and the woman spoke.

"Corvus, we shall send them the medical aid. I will not waste the Inquisitions resources for your own fears and delusions."

The man in power armor glared at the woman. "Lady Avine, you insult me for being cautious?"

She shook her head. "No, I insult you because you waste our time with this nonsense. Your theories are preposterous and I am finished speaking of it."

His eyes glittered. "Why would a man with such an accent of the lower class sound that way? He sounded scared, Avine. Why request aid if one sounds that scared. Why request extraction?"

A click came from the red robed figure with the rebreather unit and a raspy robotic human voice came out. "Inquisitor Kaine, this counsel has already contacted Hellsreach and confirmed that it was simply a dissident who had sent out the first transmission. The noble we spoke to said that it had been an attempt to waste Imperial resources and that all they truly needed was medical aid. We will be giving the order for aid to be sent but the soldiers of the Imperium are needed else where on Sanctum Prime.

The other cowled head nodded. "Othos is correct, I have already sent out the order for a Sisters Hospitillar unit to be sent down with medical supplies in three days. This counsel is over."

Inquisitor Corvus Kaine looked at the backs of his fellows and growled. He turned to the large view port and looked down upon Sanctum, it was green and blue. A beautiful planet. He could not see the battle lines and the bodies. But he had been embroiled in the war firsthand. He had been caught there, investigating a local superstition that he thought might have held merit whilst waiting for the Imperial Crusade, Crusade Casban, to come gather him and what remained of his retinue up.

His fellow Inquisitors were apathetic and incredulous to his beliefs of Sanctum. But Corvus Kaine knew that there was more wrong with the planet. He just did not have the evidence.

-=I=-

Sister Loraine Nass was outfitted in her flak armor. Her deep red robes of her order swathed around her. The order had come to them from a servitor. An irritating creature that beeped and gave out more static than a ruined field vox. The order was for her and ten other novices, she was the highest ranking as the Constantia, with a full Battle Sister to lead them in being a simple amount of protection for the detachment of Sisters Hospitillar.

She gave praise to the Emperor for allowing her this chance to prove her dedication before having to choose her membership in the order, which was assuredly the Ordo Militant. She looked to the commanding Sister, Sister Dauphine, and hoped for no confrontation or conflict whilst on their mission. Dauphine was freshly raised to being a full Battle Sister and had never held command before.

Down the aisle she sat she could see Arbitrator Drake Argurius and his daughter Octavia. She had been there with them when they had fled the destruction of Ellysium. Drake had been a much more jovial and carefree justice officer then, in one year his cynicism had taken over his personality. He was reliable in a fight, she thanked the Emperor for having brought him to be their guide. But he was attached to the girl, who had rejected the offer of joining the Sisters. The child had come out of her catatonic state only six months before and had spoken almost exclusively to only Drake. She could lead to issues if things got complicated on planetside

Sister Loraine's hands played with the charge of her lasgun and she felt the transport ship hum beneath her. They were simply being sent down to help the wounded, they were doing the Emperor's work. And that was all that mattered.

-=I=-

_End of Prologue_

Well it is now time for me to work on the rest of the story, keep checking in.

-J.


End file.
